Time is everything in first response. However, any number of factors pull against speedy response times, many of which first responders have little control over. They do have control over the fire incident management software they choose.
And so, in this article, we’ll examine the ways incident management software helps first responders act faster.
Fire incident management is a race against time
Indeed, the shorter the response time of emergency services – not just fire – the more lives are likely to be saved. However, the data suggests that inefficient coordination and collaboration stand out as stark challenges to speedy fire incident management, particularly when multiple agencies are responding to large incidents together.
What’s the solution, here? Better pre-planning and more intensive trainings replicating these fire incident management conditions are often put forth. But there’s another means shown to accelerate fire incident response and resolution: and that’s fire incident management software.
Software for incident management: what is it and who uses it
For response teams still reliant on entirely manual processes, fire incident management software is a form of incident management software that provides fire response teams with the information and tools needed to manage any incident effectively through its entire lifecycle of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
As FEMA puts it, the broader category of incident response management software consists of a suite of tools that collects and manages critical incident data in a collaborative environment to aid decision-making. Even more specifically, incident response management software captures diverse, multilayered information to provide first responders and emergency managers alike with the knowledge critical to managing no-notice incidents and planned events at any scale.
Who relies on incidents management software, though? The list is long; beyond fire services, emergency medical services, emergency management and law enforcement agencies, enterprises and critical infrastructure organizations also use incident management system software. And they use the software for all of the following use cases:
- Incident planning
- Multiagency coordination
- Resource allocation
- Asset tracking
The key benefits of incident management system software
That’s because digital incident management solutions, whether for fire services or other entities, tap into advanced technology to assist an organization’s coordination and response during emergencies and perform post-crisis analysis to improve the response to the next one.
Here are a few other advantages of incident response management software:
Centralized critical data management
In an emergency, information is the most important thing there is — and as a situation develops, the scope and magnitude of its effect on your organization change with it. The more first responders, for instance, know about a developing crisis, the better positioned they are to make informed decisions, prioritize focus, and execute responses.
Incident management software lets organizations create a clear and accessible hub for critical data during an emergency. As a result, every team member has a single source of truth from which to understand the situation, collaborate on decision-making, and move quickly to execute their role.
Enhanced situational awareness
Incident management software also provides the tools needed to optimize a response team’s situational awareness, so they have the information they need to make the most informed response decisions at critical junctures. The increased accessibility of a centralized data hub, rather than scattered, less scalable manual processes that many fire agencies might still rely upon, helps teams improve decision making.
More effective communication
During a crisis, the ability for critical emergency data to flow where it’s needed relies on the dependability, usability, and accessibility and of the communication channels that carry it. Additionally, first response command leads need the ability to control where and how information flows, to ensure that chain of command is preserved so that all emergency response personnel are operating in unison as one larger team.
Incident response software grants each first responder personalized access to clear, bi-directional communication channels as they perform their respective duties. Team leads also have permission controls to ensure that information gets to the places it needs to go in order to keep directives clear.
How fire incident management software helps improve coordination and collaboration
But how exactly does incident management software help first responders act faster during a crisis? We pinpoint three clear ways:
1. Swiftly activates teams
Firstly, when minutes count, as they do in fire incident management, fire incident management systems can help teams respond quickly and confidently to all hazards by leveraging swift team activation, resource assignments, and notification workflows to ensure fire response teams are well equipped, informed, and up to date with the latest available information as any situation unfolds.
2. Centralizes incident response
Centralized incident response, as we noted before, also has role to play in helping first responders act faster. With powerful workflows, incident response software deploys plans and checklists in an instant, to enable teams to respond sooner.
3. Enables visibility and accountability
Meanwhile, incident logs and timelines documenting key decisions help teams maintain a high-level of visibility and accountability during and after the response.
Incident management system software capabilities to consider to help first responders act faster
Of course, not all incident management software is created equal. To ensure faster response times, agencies and organizations will have to consider emergency incident management software that enables them to:
- Coordinate a swift and effective response to any incident, regardless of the types of danger, damage, or hazards involved
- Manage emergency assets and resources including credentials and certifications, ensuring the team has the right resources ready to respond
- Keep connected during emergencies via email, SMS, voice message, push notifications, or within the platform itself
- Keep emergency response aligned with instant access to plans and checklists, delineating pre-prepared tasks to team members as they are needed
- Maintain comprehensive incident logs and timelines to keep visibility high and accountability present both during and after response
- Gather organized incident notes with ready-to-go forms and templates hosted in the cloud with nothing to install
- Optimize situational awareness with accessible, responsive interfaces that keep up-to-date information right where the response teams go for it
- Map the locations of critical infrastructure and their threat level from extreme weather by integrating Esri ArcGIS, WMS, KML, GeoJASON, or other sources
- Build Emergency Operation Centers (EOCs) at local, regional, state, and national levels, with customizable permissions for each user
Finally, time is scarce in fire incident response. But solutions like Noggin can lower incident response times with software that keeps the whole incident management team following the same plans, communicating on the same platform, and viewing the same operating picture.
Don’t just take our word for it, though. Request a demonstration to see Noggin in action for yourself.
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